YMMV / The Quarry

Tropes with their own pages:

• Narm

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• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • How much of Nick's sudden hostility is the werewolf infection or just what he's really like underneath? Several infected do act hostile towards the others, but Nick has many distinct differences, most notably that his behavior happens long before his transformation and happens without consideration to external factors. Is Nick's infection simply worse to his extensive injuries? Or is he a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing? What's more, there are also a few moments even before the other counselors know that anything has happened to him where they discuss that Nick isn't everything he appears to be at a glance. These are in innocent enough ways on their own, such as Ryan saying that he's got a "steel barbecue grill under that shirt" despite him coming across as a soft and preppy nerd and Emma saying that he's a confident kisser in response to Jacob saying that he doubts Nick has any experience with women, and they may just be there to foreshadow one of the most soft-spoken characters being the first presented plot-guaranteed werewolf infectee, but they still easily provoke questioning as to just how far the themes of duality and a less-innocent inside versus an inoffensive outward appearance are meant to go with him.
  • Ryan tends to have a stoic but often stammering way of speaking, he's a kind person who does have a sense of humor but frequently replies to others' playful or clumsy statements with dry corrections or Lampshade Hanging, he's generally happy to spend his time alone wrapped up in the supernatural podcasts that he likes rather than go out of his way to actively hang out with the other counselors, and he has a tendency to be rigid and fixated in his thought process, as seen in his insistence that his father figure Chris isn't hiding or involved in anything alarming and that everything happening to the group is simply bad luck even as circumstances become increasingly suspicious, as well as in his initial adamant denial that werewolves could possibly exist despite having witnessed Nick's transformation. He's a reserved, quiet, dedicated, loyal, and serious person either way, but many fans have interpreted him as being on the autism spectrum as a contributor to him exhibiting this combination of traits.
• Angst? What Angst?: Dylan doesn't appear to be all that bothered by having his hand cut off. The fact he isn't physically suffering can be handwaved away by suggesting the werewolf venom could have healed his wound without turning him, but the psychological effects aren't so easily explained. That said, Dylan is known for his laid-back attitude and warmhearted nature, to the extent that he's even able to briefly fight off his own transformation should he get infected. Repressing or trying not to dwell on any distress he's in over his hand would be in character for him. Partially explained In-Universe with Kaitlyn realising he's going into shock, a stock trait of which is massively under-interpreting the trauma one is subject to, and references to Kaitlyn taking Dylan off to the nurse's station (with the implication of getting strong painkillers) as soon as they get back to the lodge. That said, while in the scrapyard with Kaitlyn he can have some sad musing about how losing his hand will affect his life.
• Anti-Climax: Even if you get the best ending by getting everyone out alive, the presentation of it is still decidedly anticlimactic. After the underwhelming confrontation with Silas, there is no reunion between all the surviving characters or any resolution to their respective arcs; instead, all we see is a montage of slow-motion shots of each character with on-screen text explaining their status. This is followed by credits accompanied by a long, boring conversation between two podcast hosts whose schtick quickly becomes grating rather than amusing.
• Anti-Climax Boss: After all the buildup to his encounter, Silas goes down quickly and easily in a single shot from Laura. Even more so, he'll be in his bed licking his wounds as she comes upon him; rather than an epic showdown, the player is merely delivering a Mercy Kill.
• Arc Fatigue: A criticism many have with Chapter 7 is how long it really is, being around an hour in length as opposed to the approximate half-hour lengths of the previous chapters. The fact that most of it is told through flashbacks, significantly lessening the tension as to who makes it out, only made it worse for fans.
• Awesome Music:
  • Follow Me - Raphael Lake is a feel-good upbeat song that plays during the start of the game.
  • The Hunted - Caitlin Alise Parrott & Michael Smith is a haunting yet beautiful song that truly encapsulates how the current survivors must be feeling.
  • Stay With Me – The Venice Connection plays during a moment of intimacy with Abi and Nick, and it really sets the scene with the slow and sweet music.
  • Every Dog - Shadow Addict plays during Kaitlyn and Dylan's showdown with the werewolf in the scrapyard, perfectly matching the urgency of the scene and also making you feel like a badass as you survive an unkillable monster by the skin of your teeth.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Jacob is this in spades. One side of the fandom sees him as annoying and obnoxious, due to his frat boy personality and Jerk Jock tendencies, with shades of an It's All About Me attitude, such as him sabotaging the van and trapping the counselors at camp. Another side sees him as a lovable, sensitive guy who had hisfeelings toyed with by Emma and feels remorse for his misdeeds, of which he is punished for throughout the game.
  • In turn, Emma is also one for both those who find Jacob to be more sympathetic, or for those who just find her attitude selfish. On one hand, Jacob refusing to move on from Emma and sabotaging the van to spend one night with her is rightfully called out by everyone. On the other hand, some don't like how Emma is never called out for continuing to tease and play with Jacob's feelings for her, going as far as to deliberately provoke him by choosing to kiss Nick during truth-or-dare, instead of making the effort to set boundaries and gently remind Jacob that she's not interested. She also makes out with her best friend Abigail's crush in front of her, supposedly in an effort to bring the two closer together, and never apologizes to Abigail for it. This action also leads to Nick getting bitten and Abigail potentially killed due to the characters splitting up after it.
  • Ryan. Some see him as an intriguing Final Boy archetype, whose loner personality and big moments make him a likable character. However, others see him as ignorant and Too Dumb to Live, with his defense of Chris Hackett and denial of the existence of werewolves, especially after seeing Nick turn into one, being a key factor. His two love interests being the well-received Kaitlyn and Dylan, as well as his character being a Final Boy archetype who gets the most screentime, leads to some outright considering him a Creator's Pet.
  • Likewise, Laura gets some flack upon returning as a main character in Chapter 7. Some either enjoy seeing her transform from a seemingly proactive young woman who gets held captive alongside her boyfriend from the Prologue, into a highly-capable werewolf slayer with a more deserving Final Girl status than Kaitlyn. Others find her overstaying her welcome, causing more problems than solving them, and being way too trigger-happy in her efforts to save her boyfriend when hunting down werewolf Chris, as she always executes Kaylee thinking she was werewolf Chris, and can determinately execute werewolf Nick while he's trapped inside an electrified cage and was no threat to anyone at the time.
  • Also Bobby, the Hackett family's Dumb Muscle. He's either the source of the game's funniest moments, such as the "you stabbed me" quote, or the culprit of the game's narmiest moments, mostly owing to his incompetence when handling the counsellors' situation which would've solved a lot of the game's drama. His role in Chapter 9 has the player base especially divided, as he may be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap for some when he saves his family by fighting off his werewolf brother (if Ryan didn't stab him earlier), while others can't forgive him for killing/trying to kill Ryan, and being too simple-minded to realize what he's done.
• Best Level Ever:
  • The encounters in the Hackett house in Chapter 9. It features intense set pieces as our heroes square off against each member of the Hackett family, culminating in Ryan potentially taking the kill-shot against a werewolf Chris.
  • The encounter in the scrapyard in Chapter 9 and later in lodge during Chapter 10 with Dylan and Kaitlyn. The former is an intense action scene using blowtorches, horns, and a car to chase off a werewolf, all involving an electromagnetic crane. The latter includes a thrilling Chase Scene against Caleb and a variety of ways to kill him being the main focus. It showcases Dylan's ingenuity and Kaitlyn's Action Girl credentials.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • The heavy focus on the full moon makes it quite obvious that the main group are being hunted by werewolves but they themselves don't figure this out until later on.
  • Travis being Chris Hackett's brother. You don't find out his name and identity until Chapter 7. However, in Chapter 3, Jacob can find a childhood picture of Chris posing with a "young boy" that is very obviously Ted Raimi, spoiling it ahead of time.
• Cliché Storm: Naturally, as The Quarry is a love letter to horror movies that were abundant in them. You have a group of young teenagers who are stranded in the middle of no-where with no phone signal, who are then attacked by mysterious strangers and supernatural creatures. And, as always, there's a deeper conspiracy behind it all.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Bobby Hackett. It's implied by his dog tags that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He may also be on the autism spectrum, as he displays symptoms of age regression, he struggles to comprehend morality (i.e. he was surprised to learn that being stabbed hurts and he tells Ryan that he only kills people when he's told to), he displays juvenile behavior, is literal minded (when asked for his position, he replies with "Standing?" before correcting himself when asked about his location), and he blindly follows orders from his family.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: While the cast is mostly made up of Base Breaking Characters (see above), you'll find few players who don't count Dylan as a favourite by the end of the game. Despite his pranks in the first chapter coming across as perhaps a bit more mean-spirited than was intended, people are usually won over either by the fact that he's easily the funniest character (including some hilarious improvised dialogue by Miles Robbins); is Supermassive's first overtly queer character; is the POV character during the badass Signature Scene in the junkyard; or indeed a combination of all three.
  • Nice Girl Abi tends to get a lot of love, too, for being easily the most genuinely sweet character in the entire game.
• Foe Yay Shipping: There are dozens of Travis/Laura fanfics, likely more because of the tropes involved than any closeness they have in canon.
• Good Bad Bugs: When Constance finds out that Kaylee is dead, it's possible for most of her model to vanish. While this ruins the drama, it's absolutely hilarious to watch a floating hairdo scream insults at Travis.
• Guide Dang It!: Good luck figuring out the lever puzzle on your first playthrough. Given that there's nothing else like it in the game and that the puzzle itself gives no indication that you're throwing two switches per door, it's easy to completely misunderstand that it wants you to make up the number on the door you want to open by adding up the numbers on the two switches you pull. Annoyingly, getting it wrong can result in a guaranteed death for Jacob later in the game.
  • One of the clues Kaitlyn can find in Chapter 10 is only accessible if she fails a specific QTE in Chapter 5. There is absolutely zero indication of this, and this is the only clue in the game that requires a failure in order to obtain it.
  • Speaking of Kaitlyn, there's only three ways that she can survive the game, and all of them require prior planning in an earlier chapter. Only one of which is even slightly obvious. Players that did not do any of these grew very frustrated, especially since, at launch, the game would send players WAY back should they try to use Death Rewind to save Kaitlyn.
    • Option 1: Abigail must break into the cabin in Chapter 1, which is her very first choice. She must then locate the stuffed rabbit and choose to keep it. This will allow Kaitlyn to distract a werewolf Caleb and lock him in the freezer.
    • Option 2: Abigail or Emma must both locate the silver shells in the storm cellar and survive long enough to make it into the hidden camera room. In Emma's case, she also cannot be infected, or else she will turn before then. This will allow Abigail/Emma to toss Kaitlyn the shells and kill Caleb with them.
    • Option 3: Kaitlyn must be infected. It is only possible for Kaitlyn to be infected in the scrapyard in Chapter 9, and it requires failing a specific QTE. Failing an incorrect QTE could lead to Kaitlyn or Dylan's death, and the game actively encourages you to pass all of them. Being infected makes Kaitlyn unkillable during her showdown with Caleb.
• Ho Yay: Abigail and Emma's first introduction has the two displaying far more chemistry and affection than they get with either of their designated love interests. The lack of chemistry between Abi/Nick and Emma/Jacob is likely intentional as neither is meant to work out, but the girls' obvious affection for one-another, playful teasing, honesty, and tenderness still come off as more than a little shippy. Abi's Establishing Character Moment even has her dreamily sketching Emma in her notebook. Later, if Nick asks her to sketch him, she'll seem uninterested.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Jacob is viewed as this by some of the players, though whether he's actually meant to be viewed as one is debatable. The official website describes him as an obnoxious and self-centered jock with some charming points, with the biggest selfish move he pulls being his sabotaging the minivan so that he can extend the stay of the counselors over the night and attempt to mend his relationship with Emma, which unintentionally sets off the events of the game and leads to the deaths of many people (some inevitable, others dependent on the players choices). However, he doesn't quite get off scot-free for his wrongdoing, as outside of having his heart broken by Emma who makes out with another guy in front of him and then can later firmly establish that she wants nothing to do with him, he spends most of the night in his underwear, crying and largely in the dark about what's happening within his friend circle, assuming he survives long to be seen this way. If bitten, he can also end up losing control and feasting on Emma as a werewolf, the same girl he was trying so futilely to win back. In the latter event, by sunrise he is last seen surrounded by her head and other assorted body parts in a pool of her blood, having completely mentally shutdown with a thousand yard stare.
  • This is definitely the intention with the Hacketts, but especially Travis, who initially comes off as a creepy kidnapper possibly involved in shady stuff, but is actually just trying to save his beloved brother, niece, and nephew. For his efforts, he's treated with repulsion by his family, especially his mother, who takes particular offence at the fact he's a cop, even though he mostly uses this as a means to protect the family's illicit activities.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Peanut Butter Butterpops jingle. It's not uncommon to see puns and other jokes riffing off of it pop-pop-pop up around discussion of Jacob and to a lesser extent Nick, each of whom holds Butterpops as his Trademark Favorite Food and who sings the jingle in a silly voice on seeing the bag of them early in the game.
  • "Swarm of bears", a strange choice of words from Dylan's awkward radio S.O.S. that Ryan calls out once the message is over. Also the subsequent interaction "Herd of bears." "Yeah, I’ve heard of bears."
  • Ryan runs away after Bobby stabs him in the ribs with a knife. Bobby's response? "He took my knife!"
• Narm: Has its own page.
• One-Scene Wonder: Constance doesn't even appear until over halfway through the game, where she gets a brief introductory scene taunting werewolf!Nick in his cage following his capture by the Hackett men. She then gets a longer scene confronting Travis in the family home that can end with Laura shooting her in the face during a struggle over the shotgun, killing her instantly and ending her role in the game. But because she's played by Lin Shaye, she certainly leaves an impression regardless.
• Player Punch:
  • Getting any of the main characters killed, as they're just teenagers caught up in a situation that's beyond them.
  • If Abi refuses to shoot Nick when he's transforming into a werewolf, he'll leap forward and decapitate her. Abi is quite possibly the sweetest character in the entire group and had spent a lot of time comforting Nick, even as he became needlessly cruel and rude towards her as he started to transform.
• Realism-Induced Horror: The game isn't short on antics that are genuinely scary for reasons that are closer to home than the experience of being hunted by werewolves.
  • Travis' interactions with Laura and Max are genuinely unsettling. Though he's trying to be Creepy Good, he just comes off as creepy. Two teenagers driving late at night being accosted by a lone police officer, who takes a weird interest in the girl of the two, firmly tells them not to go to their intended destination and to instead go to a local motel he knows about, and when they next see him he proceeds to drug and kidnap them. Without the context of the werewolves, this whole instance could make a horror movie on its own.
  • To a lesser extent, Jacob's possessiveness of Emma can make players feel uncomfortable if they've ever experienced similar behavior. Jacob is large, aggressive, and responds very poorly to seeing Emma with any other male, intentionally sabotaged their vehicle to force Emma to spend another night in his company, and can even kill Emma late in the game if they meet up and he is infected (though this only happens if he transforms and Emma has nothing to defend herself with). To some, his behavior can be a massive red flag.
  • Nick's sudden attitude toward Abigail; though it's induced by supernatural means (though even there, its debatable how much is just showing Nick's true self rather than his personality being corrupted), the seemingly nice and charming guy that the shy Abigail fell for starts to get aggressive, pushy, and physically abusive, at one point trying to force himself on her, then guilt-trips and verbally abuses her over perceived rejection. Similar to Jacob, it's unsettling because, while everything else involving the werewolves is fantastical, there are people like Nick who will lure potential partners in with a faux charm and kindly persona only to reveal a cruel and abusive side later.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Jacob, due to him unintentionally endangering the lives of his friends because he wanted to spend one more night with Emma after being dumped by her. With how much some players hate him and blame him for what happened, you'd think he knew the whole werewolf incident would happen when he sabotaged the van.
  • Nick gets some of this treatment as well, due to his behavior towards Abi after he's infected. He is undeniably frightening as he becomes more and more possessive over her and the metaphor of a seemingly nice guy turning out to be a creep is obviously deliberate. But some players have reacted as though it's been confirmed that this is Nick's real personality showing through, despite the fact that Chris and Max (and determinantly other characters too, like Emma and Jacob) also display similar out-of-character aggression when they're about to turn.
  • Ryan, due to his unending defense of Chris Hackett and over-the-top denial of the existence of werewolves, despite having recently watched Nick transform and possible decapitate Abigail. He also needs to be convinced to allow Dylan to take the shotgun from Chris' office, despite the obvious danger they're in (Ryan, of course, already has a shotgun in his possession). He will also try to convince Laura not to kill Silas. Player actions can also have Ryan, among other things, kill Jacob on two separate occasions, attempt to kill Laura, and permanently cripple Dylan. Ryan's detractors (of which there are plenty) can't help but wonder if he's secretly trying to help the werewolves win the whole time. This gets debunked pretty easily due to the fact that if Ryan fails to kill Chris, he will die instantly.
  • Emma to an extent. While she can definitely be cruel to Jacob and does a poor job of breaking up with him in a healthy way, the way some fans describe her makes her sound like a complete psychopath. Overall, her worse actions are kissing someone who wasn't fully on board with it (which, while bad, is not evil), and being callous about a break-up.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: A major criticism of the game was the slow introduction to the main counselors after the intense prologue, as the game takes 3 chapters (roughly 2 hours), to get the intensity going again.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Abi's potential death by an infected Nick features incredibly stiff animation that doesn't match the physics of what's happening, looking almost unfinished.
  • The manner that the game goes about avoiding showing on-screen the characters changing their appearances (be it putting on clothes, taking an eyepatch off, transforming into a werewolf, etc) makes it really obvious from a technical standpoint that the developers are just swapping one character model for another. One notable example is when Jacob gets changed for his nighttime swim with Emma, where the camera cuts away for all of a second before returning to him just in his boxers with no sign of his clothes, having somehow managed to strip all his clothes off in that blink-of-an-eye.
• Spiritual Sequel: It's not quite Until Dawn 2, but given how challenging a direct sequel to a game with so many variant outcomes would be, it's probably the closest we'll ever see in terms of similar themes and shared presentation, made by the same team. It also incorporates some of the ideas that were nixed from Until Dawn during development, such as making liberal use of more overtly campy horror tropes.
• Spoiled by the Format: Most players could probably guess that Laura’s story wasn’t quite over after she disappears in the prologue, due to her prominence on the cover.
• Stock Footage Failure: If you decide to sever Dylan’s hand using the shotgun, the fact that Ryan’s foot is suddenly on Dylan’s arm and that he can be briefly seen putting the chainsaw away indicates that the developers either intended for Ryan to cut Dylan’s hand off using the saw, or only animated that specific outcome.
• Strangled by the Red String: The Ship Tease equivalent, at least. When Laura rejoins the story after her and Max's detainment by Travis, she starts having interactions with Ryan that seem written to imply Belligerent Sexual Tension, given such elements as personal probing and accusations of flirting, and Kaitlyn and Dylan can later commiserate that their shared crush (Ryan) seems more interested in Laura than in either of them. Many players find the whole dynamic feels really out of place given that Ryan and Laura's interactions up to that point are mostly hostile and suspicious, plus Laura already has a boyfriend, her relationship with whom is a key part of her character motivation. Others are additionally disappointed by the fact that this happens despite the player's ability to have Ryan indicate interest in Kaitlyn and especially Dylan, feeling like what can come across as setup for a player choice-guided romantic subplot winds up overridden by a dynamic that comes out of nowhere.
• Tear Jerker: Many of the potential deaths of the characters count.
  • Special mention goes to Dylan, if he's infected while using the crane. He has just enough time to scream at Kaitlyn to run away from him before he transforms.
  • Right before that, Dylan can potentially die if he can't get the flamethrower to work. All he can do is watch, on the verge of terrified tears, as the werewolf comes for him.
  • Failing one QTE if Kaitlyn tries to lock werewolf Caleb in the freezer during the lodge attack will result in her being pulled inside with him. If Dylan is still alive and uninfected by that point, the camera will shift focus to him curling up on the floor, at a loss for any realistic way to save her, sobbing her name with shock and despair as he listens to her screams… until they stop.
  • If Abi is killed by werewolf Nick and Emma both lives and remains uninfected long enough to find out, the normally playful, showy, and upbeat Emma will say weakly that her best friend can't be gone and spend the remainder of the game with swollen red eyes as if she's unable to stop crying, her subsequent lines delivered wearily and at times dejectedly.
• That One Level: In Chapter 8, you have the chance of either freeing Jacob from the cage he is in, or leave him there. Choosing the former will make you have to solve a Resident Evil-esque lever puzzle in order to open the cage. Which will catch you off guard after being used to the overall simplistic mechanics of the game, especially since its rules are not well signposted and you're likely to mess it up on your first playthrough. Getting it wrong can easily guarantee his death at the jaws of werewolf!Nick later in the game.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Many fans were disappointed by Nick’s minimal role in the story. He serves as a Love Interest to Abigail, and a way to cause some drama with Jacob and Emma, but he takes a major backseat after his transformation into a werewolf in Chapter 6. He only appears in a few scenes afterwards, has only one death that occurs with no fanfare or emphasis, and only appears in the end credits afterwards with no resolution to his subplot with Abigail.
  • Likewise, Jacob mostly exists to trigger the events of the game by sabotaging the car, and he spends the rest of the game being chased, beaten, and captured by the Hacketts and werewolves, with one potential death per scene if the player fails specific QTEs or puzzles. Needless to say, some players were disappointed that there was no chance to play him as The Atoner who tries to redeem his mistake by attempting to cure any of his potentially infected friends, which would've factored well in the final mission to kill Silas.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Regardless of how many werewolves are running around at night, Kaitlyn's lodge finale will only ever pit her against Caleb. Think of the possibilities for how tense it would be to have all your chickens come home to roost.
  • In Chapter 10, Kaitlyn can find an open window in the lodge's ground floor and close it. This was opened by Jacob back in Chapter 1 when he was locked out by Dylan. This never comes into play, but it would have made for a seriously ironic death if failing to close that window could lead to a Dylan death during the lodge finale.
  • In Chapter 1, the potential for a quick "joke ending" in the vein of Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 5. Imagine, as Jacob, just simply not choosing for long enough to take either option to sabotage the van, leads to an ending where everyone gets in and leaves. The End.
  • In the final act, assuming things played out correctly, Laura, Ryan, and Travis will travel together to hunt Silas, the alpha werewolf. Though they encounter him briefly when he attacks their car, he's ran over and flees, after which they hunt him in the woods. Despite preparing for a genuine confrontation, with Ryan and Laura debating who gets the werewolf blood protection, this doesn't lead to them searching through the woods as Silas stalks them or a climatic action piece, but rather they just stumble upon his nest and perform a Mercy Kill on an injured Silas. It definitely leads to some disappointment given the hype for him.
  • Similarly, after meeting Laura and going out to find Chris; Ryan expresses discomfort at hunting his beloved mentor and pleads to find another way. This doesn't amount to anything as when they encounter Chris, Ryan can/will shoot him dead without so much as a pleading "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight. In fact, despite how much Ryan talks about Chris's impact on him, the two don't spend any time together due to Chris needing to be killed for Ryan to live.
  • Nick and Abigail's relationship is given a lot of prominence in the story, something past Supermassive games have done using similar Relationship Values in their choices to determine the outcome of plot critical moments. So if you played those other games, it will look like the game is hinting there's a way to avoid Nick killing Abigail after she refuses to shoot him by picking the right dialogue options during the game, something Abigail herself wonders about if she did instead. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort is possible and at that point it's either kill or be killed. Furthermore, neither Nick or Abigail will react at each other's potential deaths, which is especially jarring if it's werewolf Nick who killed Abby.
  • There is no option to save Kaylee. No matter what you do, she will always die being shot by Laura. What makes this even more jarring is that her death has little relevance in the current plot. Laura doesn't ever suffer any emotional turmoil over having accidentally killed the wrong target, and we never see her father and brother react to her death. While Kaylee was responsible for Silas getting loose and cursing her family with lycanthropy, Laura never learns this until after her death, and the event isn't used as conflict in any way barring one short "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Kaylee's uncle Travis, which she doesn't respond to. She merely exists as a plot device to motivate the Hacketts into killing Laura (which they were already planning to do to cover up their crimes.)
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Jacob has gained a number of players that sympathize with him, particularly because of his situation with Emma, his Butt-Monkey status, and because his "friends" don't treat him well. While he is the reason the characters ended up in that situation in the first place, some feel that he was unfairly dealt a shitty hand for something he otherwise had no control over. It helps that he's given a few moments of genuine vulnerability, shedding Manly Tears over his heartache concerning Emma early in the game and breaking down with likewise tearful stress, guilt, and self-loathing over the hell that his actions have led to if he survives to his last potential scene, making it all the easier for one who's inclined to give the guy a chance to connect with and take pity on him. It helps that no one acknowledges his potential deaths In-Universe, and the way some of them are framed as darkly comical can make one think that the game expects us to see him as an Asshole Victim, despite other characters like Travis, and Laura, and Ryan making similarly lethal mistakes throughout the game while being treated more sympathetically by the narrative.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Travis. While he's meant to be seen as a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Hero, a lot of his actions make it hard to see him as such. First of all, there's the needlessly harsh and unempathetic way he treats Laura and Max in the opening, which only gets worse after he takes them hostage. Then he deliberately keeps the pair in the dark about what's happening for most of their captivity when being transparent and understanding likely would've helped earn him their trust and stop them from seeing him as a crazed kidnapper cop. But despite this, Travis will get especially aggressive any time Laura and/or Max try to escape by force, to the point where he'll murder Laura later in the game if she shoots him in order to escape the prison. The fact that he can also potentially kill Ryan (someone who's done absolutely nothing to him) only makes matters worse. All this, in addition to the cruel and illegal lengths he goes to in order to protect his dangerous werewolf brother, nephew, and niece at the expense of innocent civilians, makes Travis look less like the moral compass of his family and more like the one who's just as bad as the rest of the Hacketts, but hypocritically views himself as the White Sheep of the family.
  • Emma is meant to be a Lovable Alpha Bitch whose storyline is to emphasize that even women you find bitchy or obnoxious are allowed to be firm about their boundaries in relationships, and are not required to cave on them or be soft or nice about it to spare other people's feelings. Instead she comes off as an almost abusive and even predatory friend to Jacob, Nick, and Abigail —to varying degrees, based on the player's choices. From kissing Nick, despite how uncomfortable he was, and Abigail's crush on him. She constantly teases and belittles Jacob, despite claiming to want to be his friend. She claims hurting Abi's feelings are for her own good, and can be a Control Freak, wanting her to pursue a relationship on Emma's terms; having her Mercy Kill a dying squirrel with a rock instead of doing it herself. The narrative rarely if ever acknowledges these faults, and she is never meaningfully called out on anything that she does, especially in the ending where she and Jacob reunite, as she will be presented as the more moral of the two ^note though it's somewhat mitigated by the fact that you can play Jacob as an unremorseful asshole in that scene).
  • Kaitlyn can come off as this in a lot of her interactions with people, especially Jacob. Her first scene involves her probing Jacob for more information on his breakup, just so she can callously rub it in. And if Jacob doesn't go along with the ribbing, she'll think he's a bummer. She also comes off as a massive hypocrite for chewing out Jacob for sabotaging their car, when she foolishly told him how to do it. For all of her concerns about firearm safety she also has a bad habit of handing the shotgun over to people who are much less cautious with it leading to one possible death where Ryan accidentally fatally shoots Jacob.
  • Even after everything she and Max went through, Laura can come across as needlessly cold and trigger-happy. She shows no hesitation in her pursuit of Chris Hackett's life and doesn't explore any other ways to cure Max, despite Ryan's pleas that Chris is a good man who never did her or Max any (intentional) harm. Earlier in the game, she kills a transformed Kaylee Hackett (the only death beyond the player's control) and afterwards shows no remorse even after learning that she killed the wrong target and Kaylee was innocent. She can also kill werewolf-Nick without even trying to confirm her target and later shows no qualms over abandoning Jacob in a cage next to a werewolf, and in fact can also cause his death as well by opening the cage.

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